The American crowdfunding site hailed as a new way to get started in business
is launching in the UK, it has announced.

The site, which is a funding platform for new businesses, is currently limited to those that are registered in the United States.

According to its twitter feed, however, “People in the UK will be able to launch projects on Kickstarter starting this autumn. More info soon!"

Kickstarter launched in 2009 and has funded more than 20,000 projects. Its most famous so far have included the Pebbel watch, which attracted nearly 70,000 backers and over $10 million.

Kickstarter uses Amazon Payments, which requires users to have a US bank account, although a large number of UK companies have circumvented this by either setting up a US account or partnering with American companies.

The site has also helped fund video games, with UK-based developers raising $625,143 for the sequel to Carmageddon.

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According to www.crowdfunding.org there will be more than 530 crowdfunding services by the end of 2012, up 60 per cent on 2011 with 44 in the UK alone.

If a company needs to raise money for a project then investors can back them by pledging money. Depending on the scheme, they get back special versions of the product, cash from sales or equity. Sometimes product teams simply ask for donations from enthusiasts.

A musician, Amanda Palmer, helped to raise more than $1 million to fund her new record, but the most successful project to date is Pebble's watch. At the Le Web conference the company’s founder Eric Migicovsky praised the platform and expected further success for gadget companies using this channel, although he also added that "building 85,000 watches is quite a challenge".